Chugging Along

Over the past month we have made alot of progress in wedding planning. All of the vendors are booked! Invitations went out weeks ago and RSVPs have been coming in steadily. This week we had the final floral meeting. I am really excited to see how they come out! Christy is going for a seasonal look that incorporates natural elements and different textures. Here is one of the inspiration pictures we used.

We aren't trying to recreate this bouquet but it helps to give an idea. Her textural elements will be more subtle and less predominant.

The next couple of weeks we are making lots of detail decisions as the wedding is now less than two months away!

DIY Flower Tip

Many of you know that I DIYed a bunch of items in my wedding. One being our centerpieces. I love, love, love fresh flowers but my budget couldn't handle the cost of a florist. For under 100 dollars I bought all the flowers for my centerpieces. Our vases cost 75 cents a piece and the candles were party packs bought at hobby lobby with their 40% off coupons. All in all with tax each centerpiece came in somewhere between 10-11 dollars, pretty good I would say. I will make sure to post pictures once I get them.

But anyways because they were real flowers we couldn't do them to far ahead. Meaning at 11pm the night before my wedding my sister and I rolled up our sleeves to make the centerpieces. Luckily I had numbers on my side, we only had to make 10. To be more efficient we set up an assembly line with Tiffany cutting the stems and myself arranging and finessing.

Picture of trial until the professional pictures are ready

The idea was to get the ball/dome shape of tightly packed roses. So what I did was cut a piece of ribbon for the height of the rose in the middle, the tallest. Tiffany used this ribbon as a guide for every single rose. She cut all the roses in each centerpiece the exact same using this ribbon, put them in the vase and handed them to me. Then I would start at the outside trimming all the roses and arranging them to get the dome shape. The ribbon trick allowed Tiffany to quickly cut all the roses the same height so that everything would be uniform. This also allowed her to do so with efficiency so that she finished quickly enough to be able to help me with the final finessing. The centerpieces weren't perfect but they were definitely good enough. I don't know how a real florist would feel about this method but it worked for us. Between the two of us we were able to complete them in about an hour and fifteen minutes.

T's Wedding

Despite the fact that my wedding is over I seem to still be working on weddings. My sister's wedding is the focus however this go round. Today I proofed her wedding invitations at the printers. She lives out of town and wanted to use the same printer I did. However she waited until last minute so I will most likely be driving them out to her tomorrow.

I also did a mock up flower arrangement for her shower. And of course if you know me you know I LOVE fresh florals, so any excuse to buy flowers I jump at. I wanted to test putting sliced limes in the vase to see how well it does or does not work. I started the arrangement yesterday and put in the limes. I quickly learned that the limes will turn overnight so I definitely can't put the limes in until the morning of. However I was really happy overall with the look. I don't know if I will be making an arragement this big, I might make a bunch of smaller versions to space them out. But the look will be similar. Her wedding colors are green and brown, but her flowers will be white and green at the wedding.

Lots of good things!

Today I found out that I am getting lots of good and unexpected things.

First I spoke with my florist today to confirm all the flowers and final designs. I found out that ranunculus is pretty much done for the season and even if I was Oprah I couldn't get them. So I was a bit bummed when I heard this. Especially since we are having a gum paste ranunculus on top of our cake to match our flowers, o well.

However instead my florist is going to get for me the coral peonies which are the exact ones from my inspiration picture that we are using to base my bouquet off of. Because of the last minute change due to mother nature I am going to get the peonies without the extra up charge, yay! These peonies are tree peonies and not like the bush ones, they don't have as many layers of petals but either way are pretty!

The big bright flowers are the exact coral peonies I am going to get.

My second good thing is that I found out I am going to get a second photographer the day of my wedding for free! Yep, that's right free. We spoke with our photographer and initially wanted the second photog for the ceremony and bit before hand so that we could make sure we got all the important details. It's not like the photographer can say, "Wait walk back down the aisle I didn't get the shot I wanted."

But when we looked at the timeline we realized we were going to have to add on an hour or two and we couldn't afford adding time and a second photographer. Our photographer's business is starting to boom and she is going to bring the second photographer with her to start to get some more experience before she starts making it standard to have two photographers.

Bouquets as Centerpieces?

One of the good things about our florist is that she provides us with bloom boxes which are these decorative cardboard boxes that the girls can place their bouquets in when not holding them. This way the flowers continue to get water and stay fresh.

However during the reception I am thinking about where the bouquets should go. I think it would be a shame to have them just laid on the table next to them during dinner. Instead I would like to stretch our money and use them as decorations around the room.

We can't put them on the cake table since it will be draped in gathers of fabric. I don't think the reception hall wants them on the bar as they might get knocked over. The only other solution I can come up with is that 2 could sit on the escort card table and one on the guest book table. I was also thinking that maybe my bouquet could sit as the centerpiece in the middle of our table. If not then I'm not sure what to do with my bouquet during the evening.

I don't know what do you guys think? Any other brilliant ideas?


This is the inspiration for my bouquet. I think it would look good sitting in the middle of the table.

Flower Struggle

Today I am really struggling with making the final floral decision for the centerpieces. We are going to DIY the centerpieces since I really wanted fresh flowers but a florist's prices weren't in the budget. After looking around, Costco is the best price. However they can't guarantee that the flowers will for sure make it. So you have to have a second choice. I am struggling with saying if they can't get the orange roses then I will just put candles in the hurricane vases or going with orange carnations.

I'm just really not sure what to do. I do think carnations when tightly bunched can look really nice, I'm just not sure if I want them if I can't get the roses. It was explained that because where Costco gets their flowers and the fact that they are bulk and so inexpensive they don't always make it on the truck. I'm not really sure if any of that truly makes sense all I know is it's leaving me with a dilemma.

Here are the pictures of the trial and the intended centerpieces with orange roses. Who knows maybe they will be filled with orange carnations.

Spring

It has been officially Spring for awhile now but here in Cincinnati we have had some seasonably cool weather lately. But today it is sunny and warm again! Since I love fresh flowers the arrival of Spring is very exciting. Everyone has been posting pictures of all the fresh new blooms. Today I am going to leave with you some ranunculus which will be incorporated into my bouquet and the bloom for Andy's bout.

Productivity

Today was another productive day! This week is Spring Break and I am trying to use my time off to get as many projects done as possible. I had a meeting with the florist to finalize the flowers. We will be using a mixture of ranunculus, roses, spray roses, and mini gerber daisies.

I also made my veil! I am very excited about this because I wasn't sure if it would work out. The veil is exactly what I want and I spent about $5 in supplies. One reason for making my veil was that I wasn't sure what length or style I wanted. When I pick my dress up on Thursday I will be able to try the veil on with the dress and make the adjustments based on how the 2 go together. I will post pictures once I have the final product.

In My Dreams

This table setting will only happen at the wedding in my dreams :)

Flowers by Karen Tran

Purple and Orange

Love finding more pictures with my color combo in it.

Centerpiece

Here is a centerpiece from my vault of inspiration pictures and ideas. It's simple but still cute and chic. I love all the layers of raununculus.

Flower Inspiration

I recently realized that I have so many pictures saved on my computer that were used to as inspiration to generate my own ideas of what I want and don't want in terms of our wedding. I have shared a good portion of them but still have many more I can share. Here is one of them. This pictures helped me to determine that I prefer tight, lush, short centerpieces over large centerpieces.

Photo taken from theknot.com

Carnations: Filler or Fabulous?

The question is out and the debate is ongoing. Some people stick up their noses at carnations thinking of them as a cheap filler that has been long outdated. Others enjoy their feminine ruffled edges and frugal power. I have decided to weigh in on this debate. I would have to agree with the later when they are tightly grouped together monochromatically or in other arrangements. Here is the proof:

Rustic Flowers

I think these field inspired floral arrangements are beautiful for an outdoor garden event. Sometimes I surprise myself at how much I like some "country living" looks. Or maybe it's because they look like they were freshly picked from the garden which is very refreshing. We will go reason #2.

Fall Bouquet

I have been busy this week and it finally caught up to me so now I am sick. Because of this I haven't been posting much but wanted to leave you with this gorgeous bouquet.

Of course I love this bouquet for two reasons because it is fall inspired and it incorporates purple and orange.

Happiness in a Vase

Flowers make me gloriously happy. I would chose a bouquet of fresh flowers over chocolate and jewelrey any day of the week. So the thought of not being able to have fresh floral centerpieces bummed me out a bit. Not having an unlimited budget meant floral centerpieces weren't high on the need list and in fact aren't on the need list but I really really really want list.

A few weeks ago I was on the west side of town and near a store that sells glass pieces and candles at a discount. I thought I would browse through the store just to see what they had and thought maybe I would find something that would spark some ideas. As I walked up and down the aisles I came across these cute mini huricanne glasses that are in the perfect shade of purple to go with our colors. I turned the glass over to be only more excited that they are just $0.75 a pop. Instantly my brain was buzzing with different ideas of using them with candles on the bar, on the guest book table or even maybe with flowers too. I bought only one because I wanted to take it home, get opinions and try a few things out before I was stuck with too many mini hurricanes glasses that I couldn't return.

A week later I was grocery shopping at Fresh Market when I passed by the floral department. Even if I am not going to buy flowers I always stop and look at them just to enjoy their beauty. As I was looking I came upon a dozen orange unique roses, most likely the orange rose we will be using in all of the bouquets. I thought back to the mini hurricane vase sitting on my counter at home and scooped up the dozen to see if just maybe my mini purple vase/candle holder would work with the orange roses.

Well when I got home and put the roses in the vase I was absolutely delighted! My preference for centerpieces are low (so you can see everyone across the table), tight, lush and full. One dozen roses fit perfectly into the mini vase, looking full and lush. I loved them but made sure to get a few other opinions before settling and well everyone else loved them too! Andy even made a comment at how nice the flowers looked before I told him they were our centerpiece mock-up. The flowers are going on a round mirror provided by our reception venue and surrounded by 5 votives. Even though in all the pictures the vase looks black it definitely isn't and when on the mirror with candles lit they illuminate the vase showing off the purple hue. The pictures aren't great but they give you a good sense of what it looks like.

I have since been back to the store to buy many more mini purple hurricane vases. I have some different options of where I will be able to wholesale order orange roses at $6-7 a dozen. I plan on buying votives from Hobby Lobby during their next half off sale. All combined I we will be able to make the centerpieces at just under or at $10 each. I am giddy with delight that even on a budget we are going to get real floral centerpieces that are still gorgeous, classy and if I must say elegant. I am quite possibly in love with the centerpieces and have realized: yes, you can find happiness in a vase.

Going Overboard

I think I might have just gone a bit overboard with the silk florals. Hobby Lobby had these purple dahlias that are a perfect match to the purple we are going for, so I bought most of the ones they had displayed. I bought them during a half off sale and figured I better buy them while on sale than to go back later and have them be out of stock or full price. I was going to use them for pew decorations but after looking at the pews the project I had in mind most likely won't work. I think I am going to hold onto the flowers for a little bit longer in case I come up with a different project I need them for.

On the other hand I got these cute pomanders during the sale also. In person they look quite real and our flower girls can just keep them for dress-up when the wedding is over. The only bummer is that they won't be orange to match all the other bridal party florals but the upside is that they are way cheaper than our original plan and will help to lower our floral bill.

Bridal Bouquet Possibilities

Found this bouquet the other day and it is similar to what I might end up with. Roses of different sizes in peaches, pinks, and oranges. We are going to add raununculus also.

DIY Flowers

We booked our florist, Courtenay Lambert, last week and I am very excited! In the beginning I did entertain the idea of doing our own florals since flowers can easily get expensive fast. I am all about DIY projects but I realized doing the flowers was one project I wasn't really willing to take on. All of the florals should be done a day ahead and I didn't want to add one more thing the day before the wedding to stress myself out. That being said I do know some people who did their own flowers and loved it! There are many wholesale places online and locally to order flowers and it can be a fun project if you have the time.

On A Practical Wedding one bride recently documented her dry run of DIY flowers. Her flowers looked beautiful and it seemed like a successful project. If you have the time and resources before the wedding to make your own florals it might be a fun project to do with all of the girls. A video that she suggests using to give directions to make your own bouquets is here.

Since I have been focused on the topic of flowers I found pictures of some of the flowers that are being considered or that I would like to try to incorporate.

For the orange rose I like the Milva Rose since its more of a mango color, even though on the left it looks a bit like a coral color.

For the lightest color in the bouqet I like the Versilia Rose.

For different texture and size spray roses will be included.

Not sure what color ranunculus we will have probably pinks or creams.

Lastly if we can include them I would love to since garden roses look very similar to peonies.